2026 has been a year of great change at Xbox, with the console maker engaging in a major restructure leading to the parting of ways with 5 different studios and thousands of employees. One notable move made by Xbox was the appointment of Jared Palmer as the new vice-president of engineering. Joining the brand this past May, Palmer has already announced that he is leaving Xbox.

Taking to Twitter, the recently-appointed VP of Engineering at Xbox – Jared Palmer – announced his departure from the company, writing:

“Personal update: I’ve joined @Cognition to lead engineering. I’m grateful to [Asha Sharma] and everyone at Xbox for an amazing year. Excited for this next chapter with [Scott Wu] and team.”

As mentioned, Palmer was a relatively recent addition to the Xbox team, with the announcement happening just a couple months ago in early May. At the time, Palmer was said to be joining “as a member of technical staff to work on product, engineering, developer tools and infrastructure” while also serving as a”taste” maker of sorts.

As with Sharma herself, Palmer came from an AI background, previously serving as the ‘CoreAI vice president of product’ and a ‘senior vice president of Microsoft's GitHub subsidiary.’

Whether his short stint at Xbox was always part of the plan or not, we will have to wait and find out. Either way, this latest change does not lend a great deal of confidence to the new Xbox regime.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest move? Is it an indicator of deeper issues? Or did Palmer simply receive an offer he couldn’t refuse? Let us know your thoughts down below.

While the game saw a relatively solid launch, Bungie’s Marathon has suffered in the months since, with one of its biggest detractors being the fact that the extraction shooter does not offer anything in the way of a PvE experience – making the barrier to entry far higher in some people’s minds. That said, Bungie have promised to bring some level of PvE support to the game, with the first step in this direction set to go live next month in the form of a new ‘Vault Breaker’ mode.

Prior to the launch of Marathon's second Season, the team at Bungie shared their initial plans for the future of the PvP focused extraction shooter, revealing intentions to introduce some form of PvE mode. Taking to their blog, the team at Bungie have now detailed many of the major additions set to be joining Marathon with the launch of Season 2.5 next month.

Going live on the 21st of July, the most notable addition is easily that of their new Vault Breaker mode. Described as an “experimental PVE mode” this upcoming addition will allow players to: “Explore Cryo Archive as a crew, duo, or a solo player, taking on a progressively challenging series of vaults. Grow stronger across multiple matches with progression that’s unique to Vault Breaker, and push towards the final vault and the mysterious entity within.”

Seemingly functioning somewhat as a rogue-like, Bungie explains how “Vault Breaker requires a special Sponsored Kit to queue up, and any gear or items you find stay behind when you exfil.”

That said, players will be able to obtain a currency known as Vault Data which “when extracted, can be exchanged for upgrades to your Vault Breaker Sponsored Kits as well as gear that can be used in other modes.”

Alongside this new mode, Season 2.5 will also bring new updates to Marathon’s Cradle Evolution system – adding a form of prestige while giving players who do so benefits in the form of higher max energy points and some cosmetic rewards.

Last but not least, Bungie confirmed that Season 3 is happening, and will be coming relatively soon, with its 22nd of September launch seeing new additions such as “a revamp of Perimeter”; a new Runner shell; addition weapons, equipment and more.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the current state of Marathon? Does this PvE mode sound enticing? Could Marathon find greater success in the long-run if they continued to embrace PvE? Let us know down below.

Following a great deal of controversy, Bungie’s PvP extraction shooter Marathon released earlier this year to less-than-stellar player counts, with one of the core barriers to entry being its relatively hardcore nature. In an effort to entice more players to check out the game, Bungie have announced some pretty big changes coming to Marathon with its second Season – including the introduction of “pure PVP, PVE, and PVP-lite experiences.”

Releasing a lengthy blogpost discussing Marathon’s “launch, learnings, and what’s next” Bungie revealed that a ton of changes are coming to the game with its Second Season. Full details on everything coming can be found HERE, but some of the most notable include:

• Making the game “less grindy” and “more rewarding”
• Improvements across the board (including UX, matchmaking, endgame and more)
• “New fun and mind-bending content”
• More interesting progression
• Better onboarding for new players

Perhaps the biggest change coming however is the fact that Bungie have announced that they will introduce new PvE focussed experiences, claiming that “we want to build more survival experiences for different moods, like if you want to full sweat or lean back and chill”.

Though details are currently light, the team are said to be exploring “more pure PVP, PVE, and PVP-lite experiences.”

PvP focused extraction shooters can be major successes. That said, having a form of PvE does make sense for the game’s long-term health – especially as Bungie are known for being able to meld the two experiences. Full details on Marathon’s Second Season and beyond can be found HERE.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of Marathon in its current state? Would you welcome some type of PvE mode? Can Marathon turn things around? Let us know your thoughts down below.

Dune Awakening developer Funcom has outlined some major changes coming to the game soon. First and foremost, there's the fact that the game is essentially pivoting to be PvE-first. Funcom said that over 80% of the game's players engaged only with Player-versus-Environment content, forcing the studio to rethink the existing convergence of PvE and PvP towards optional PvP. Starting in Patch 1.3.20.0, the following changes will be introduced to Dune Awakening: Another big news is that the long-requested self-hosted servers are finally on the way. The initial iteration, which will soon be available for testing, will require a few extra […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/dune-awakening-pivots-pve-first-self-hosted-servers/

Initially unveiled at the tail end of the 2025 Game Awards, Highguard is a live-service hero shooter developed by ex-Respawn Entertainment devs at Wildlight Entertainment. Despite a negative response to its initial announcement, the game managed to achieve a peak of nearly 100k concurrents on Steam following its launch last month. Since then however, interest has dwindled significantly, and while the team promised to support the game for the long-term, Highguard’s official website is no longer available – sparking concerns for the game’s future.

As discovered by multiple users, the official ‘playhighguard’ website has been taken offline, with the homepage simply stating: “Highguard – This site is currently unavailable. Please contact support@codethirtytwo.com for assistance.”

As of now, the game itself remains online and playable, however the lack of any communication from Wildlight Entertainment regarding the site’s current status has led some to fear for Highguard's future.

For the uninitiated, Highguard launched to a rather negative reception, in part due to the game itself but also the general sentiment surrounding hero shooters. Despite this, the team promised to offer long-term support, sharing a roadmap which covers the entirety of 2026.

Considering the fact that the studio has already had to lay-off a bunch of developers however, and the recent issues with its official website, Highguard's future is looking quite concerning. Hopefully Wildlight Entertainment addresses this latest issue sooner rather than later.

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KitGuru says: Did you check out Highguard at launch? What did you think? Could the game succeed given enough time and care? Let us know your thoughts down below.